{"id":778,"date":"2013-07-13T01:30:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=778"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:30:20","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:30:20","slug":"19-the-bagbazar-meeting-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/27-supplement-volume-27\/19-the-bagbazar-meeting-vol-27-supplement-volume-27","title":{"rendered":"-19_The Bagbazar Meeting.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\n
\nThe
\nBagbazar Meeting<\/span><\/b><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                     
\n<\/span>
\nW<\/font><\/b>E
\nDO not clearly
\nunderstand what has been gained by the Bagbazar meeting held on Sunday under the
\nauspices of the leading lights of Bengal. There were one or two speeches made
\nwhich said certain obvious things and
\nthere were certain resolutions passed in which we condoled, sympathised,
\ndemanded and protested. But when the meeting dispersed, we were not one whit
\nmore forward than we had been a few hours before. What we want to know, what the
\ncountry wants to know, is not what we think, – there is no doubt or difference
\nof opinion about that, everybody is thinking the same thing, <\/span>–<\/span>
\n<\/span>but
\nwhat are we going to do? The right of public <\/span>meeting
\nis to be allowed to us in future only on sufferance; students of schools are not
\nto be permitted to think about politics; students of colleges, schoolmasters,
\nprofessors are to be suffered to take interest in politics only so long as they
\ndo not do or say anything unpleasant or objectionable to the authorities;
\nnationalist agitation has been practically forbidden on penalty of arrest,
\ndeportation or exposure to police or Mahomedan goondaism. What the Government
\nmeans to do is plain enough. It intends to put down nationalism with the high
\nhand and crush every attempt of the nation to raise its head, every aspiration
\nto breathe, to grow and to live. The
\n<\/span><\/font><\/span> question now is, what do we mean to do in
\nreply?<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

               
\n<\/span>There were four subjects before the meeting on Sunday. The deportation of
\nLajpatrai came first in importance, because it shows to what extremes the
\nbureaucracy is prepared to go in order to crush nationalism. Merely. to express
\nindignation and sympathy in answer to such a step is absurd; it has all the 
\n<\/span>bathos
\nand futility of a foreseen commonplace. Of course we <\/span>are
\nindignant, of course we sympathise, but what afterwards? Have we no duty to
\nperform except the expression of these very natural, unavoidable and entirely
\nuseless emotions? Yes, we demand <\/i>that the charges against Lajpatrai
\nshould be formulated<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n


\nPage-53<\/font>
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n


\nand proved. From whom do we make this demand? In the case of the Natu brothers
\nit was just possible that pressure in Parliament might induce the Government in
\nEngland to undo what the Government in Bombay had done in a moment of panic.
\nHere there is no such possibility. Mr. Morley has publicly identified himself
\nwith this act of arbitrary oppression and his mind is too stiff and rigid with
\nage to change. The deportation of Lajpatrai is therefore an action for which the
\nLiberal Government has be- come responsible and, as such, is bound to have the
\nsupport of
\nalmost the whole Liberal Party, while it will certainly have the support of the
\nwhole Conservative Party. Who then is likely to listen to this empty
\n"demand"? We could have understood it, if the demand had been coupled
\nwith a resolution that the campaign of Boycott, Swadeshi and Swaraj should be
\npursued with tenfold vigour, that Srijut Bepin Chandra Pal should be asked to
\nreturn to Madras and complete his programme with additions, and Srijut
\nSurendranath Banerji should proceed at once to the North for the same purpose
\nand should take in Gujarat and the Central Provinces in his return journey, and
\nthat meanwhile every nerve should be strained to promote and organise the
\nmovement in Bengal. The resolution would then have had a meaning and the nation
\nwould have been inspirited to draw fresh resolve and energy from what would
\notherwise be a national calamity. As it stands, this "demand" rings
\nhollow and savours of empty braggadocio.
\n            The second question before the meeting was the state of
\nthings in Eastern Bengal, and here again the meeting dispersed after passing an
\nutterly empty and unpractical resolution. There are various ways in which the
\nsituation might be met. It might have been resolved to arrange a meeting with
\nthe leading Mahomedans of Bengal and call upon them to dissociate themselves
\npublicly from Nawab Salimullah and take active steps in order to put a stop to
\nanti-Hindu ferment which its misbegetters are now attempting to spread westward.
\nOr, we might have decided in consultation with the Hindu Zemindars in the East
\nto arrange adequate self-defence at every defensible point of the affected areas
\nand withdraw the Hindu element from villages where they were too few to render a
\ngood account of themselves. This would<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage-54
\n <\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n


\neither have compelled the hooligans to throw themselves upon well-defended
\npoints and meet the risk of a salutary defeat which they have hitherto avoided,
\nor else left the conflagration to die for want of material to prey upon, –
\nunless it turned upon those who had kindled it. But merely to lament the
\nsituation and ex- press an astonishment which nobody really feels at the action
\nof the local authorities, is neither helpful nor sincere.<\/p>\n

<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

           
\nA third subject for consideration was the University Coercion Circular.
\nThis was a crucial point; from the way in which it was dealt with, the country
\ncould understand how far the sincerity and resolution of its leaders would go.
\nIt would perhaps be too much to expect of these gentlemen that they would
\nrespond to the insult that has been put upon them by a dignified resolution to
\nsever connection with an enslaved and degraded University and take the education
\nof the country into their own hands. In the present development of public
\nfeeling this would be perfectly practicable and we believe it would. be welcomed
\nwith enthusiasm by the whole of Bengal; but it requires an amount of enthusiasm
\nand courage which we have ceased to expect from the men who lead us. Surely,
\nhowever, they might at least have definitely assured the public that they would
\noffer a firm passive resistance to the provisions of the Circular and leave the
\nGovernment, if it dared to inflict the penalty of disaffiliation with or without
\nthe consent of the Senate. Even this was not done. "We protest", and
\nthere is an end of the matter. The same course was followed with regard to the
\nOrdinance restricting the right of public meeting. Under this Ordinance the
\nGovernment reserves to itself the power of putting an extinguisher on the
\nNationalist agitation whenever and wherever it pleases. The agitation has been a
\npublic one and had nothing in it secret or underground; but if we submit to the
\nOrdinance, it must lose its public character and adopt other methods. Are we
\nprepared to accept this eventuality? We had given up petitioning as proved by
\nexperience to be futile and cannot return to it with- out acknowledging defeat
\nand enslaving India forever to the bureaucracy. Passive resistance has become
\nour chosen weapon and this it is sought to strike out of our hands. We must,
\nthere- fore, either oppose an organised passive resistance to this Ordi-<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage-55<\/font>
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n

nance, a resistance in which leaders like Srijut Surendranath must court
\nimprisonment and deportation, or we must find other methods. It was light on
\nthis question that we expected from Sunday’s meeting, but it has left us only
\ndarkness visible. It seems to be the policy of our leaders to
\n"protest", –
\nand submit.
\n<\/font>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Bande
\nMataram, <\/span><\/i>May
\n14, 1907<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n


\nPage-56
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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